A general treatment of creep crack growth

A theoretical model for creep crack based on energy balance criterion in the fracture process region is proposed in the present paper. A concept based on the dissipation of thermoelastic-plastic-creep flux into the fracture process region is introduced from which a generalized power integral Cg* was derived. This integral when is used in conjunction with the tearing modulus and other material parameters can characterize the crack growth behaviour in solids subject to general thermomechanical loadings. The analytical results computed by the proposed model have shown excellent agreement with some experimental results published by other prominent researchers.